WATONGA – Blaine County Assistant District Attorney Erik Roscom left his post for a different position earlier this month, leaving the county temporarily without a full-time prosecutor while other local prosecutors work to pick up his caseload.
Roscom started with the Blaine County office in February 2021, according to his LinkedIn account, before moving on to a position with Oklahoma Indian Legal Services. He was one of several Assistant DAs who served Oklahoma’s Fourth District under District Attorney Mike Fields, whose jurisdiction includes Blaine, Canadian, Garfield, Grant and Kingfisher counties.
Fields told the Watonga Republican that Roscom’s duties will be picked up by Jenna Brown, who previously spent half her time in the Blaine County office, as well as by prosecutors from Canadian and Kingfisher counties until Roscom’s replacement is hired.
Fields said it’s “difficult” to recruit and retain prosecutors at the moment “because of funding issues, as well as some of the criminal justice reform narrative that’s been out there for quite some time now.”
“So systemwide, we’re having difficulty recruiting and retaining,” Fields said. “But we are currently undertaking those efforts to find somebody, and I’m hopeful that we’ll have somebody in place soon.”
He said Brown is a “very experienced” prosecutor and he expects “everything to continue on in the direction it’s going, in the short-term.”
While law enforcement agencies like police departments and sheriff’s offices investigate crimes, it’s up to the DA’s office to actually prosecute them. Losing a Blaine County prosecutor could increase wait times for both crime suspects and crime victims to have their day in court – or not, as the case may be.
Fields said it can be a “very challenging process” for new prosecutors to catch up on all the cases their predecessors had open, especially for inexperienced prosecutors. “Getting up to speed on a case that may have been litigated for a year, sometimes even more – that can be very difficult,” he said. “So while you’re getting up to speed on all the existing cases, you have a constant influx of new cases. You combine those two things together, it becomes very challenging for anyone.”
Fields said filling Roscom’s position is his office’s “highest priority.”
Reached on Facebook last week, Roscom thanked Fields and the Blaine County staff he worked with. “I might be leaving the District (Attorney’s) office but I have found my home here in Watonga,” Roscom said, “and will proudly still be living here.”
Roscom said leaving the DA job was “not an easy decision,” but was motivated by his expanding family and the promise of “exciting new opportunities professionally.”
“I hope to still be involved in the community and to work closely with the local tribes in the area,” he said.
Roscom’s advice to the next Blaine County prosecutor was to keep open lines of communication with county offices and law enforcement, and to “embrace” the Blaine County community.